(Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) said on Thursday that it made a $4 billion cash contribution to pension plans for its U.S.-based hourly and salaried workers. The Detroit-based automaker, which went public again last month following a U.S. government-assisted bankruptcy reorganization, made a $2.7 billion contribution to a plan for its hourly workers and $1.3 billion for its salaried workers.

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(Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc (PEP.N) plans to buy 66 percent of Russian juice and dairy company Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD.N) for $3.8 billion in its biggest-ever international acquisition. The New York-based maker of Diet Pepsi and Frito-Lay snacks will also offer to buy the company's remaining shares after it buys the controlling stake. It values the entire Russian company at $5.4 billion.

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(Reuters) - The European Central Bank resisted pressure on Thursday to announce a major bond-buying program to contain the euro zone debt crisis, despite the risk it could disappoint investors worried about Portugal and Spain. The ECB had faced calls to rush through new anti-crisis measures at its monthly policy meeting after an 85 billion-euro ($110.7-billion) EU-IMF rescue of Ireland failed to dispel fears that other indebted countries in the single currency area could soon require a bailout.

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(Reuters) - Toll Brothers (TOL.N) posted a quarterly profit on Thursday, helped mainly by cost cuts and an income tax benefit, and shares of the largest U.S. luxury builder rose more than 1 percent. The company reported earnings of $50.5 million, or 30 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended on October 31, compared with a year-earlier loss of $111.4 million, or 68 cents per share.

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(Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators are in preliminary talks with several banks to resolve probes involving sales of complex mortgage bond deals that led to the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) involves mortgages and other loans known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, that were sold to different investors, the paper said.

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(Reuters) - Stimulus and bailout packages undertaken to cope with the economic crisis can have an impact on trade and investment and need to be managed carefully, according to the head of the World Trade Organization. Director-General Pascal Lamy said the WTO would hold a special meeting in early spring of next year to examine the effect of those measures on trade and competition.

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(Reuters) - U.S. regulators will be under pressure Wednesday to show lawmakers they are better policing foreclosures amid widespread evidence that lenders used shoddy paperwork to evict delinquent borrowers. The Senate Banking Committee is holding a hearing on problems in the mortgage servicing industry and whether they pose a broader risk to the economy or amount to an isolated if nettlesome problem.

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(Reuters) - Online group discount website Groupon said on Wednesday that it has acquired three deal websites in Asia, expanding the company's reach across East and Southeast Asia. Groupon Inc, which is rumored to be close to being bought by Google Inc, acquired uBuyiBuy, Beeconomic and Atlaspost for undisclosed terms. Atlaspost had more 1.2 million users in Taiwan, Groupon said.

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(Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus plans to upgrade its best-selling A320 medium-haul jets from 2016 with new engines offering 15 percent fuel savings, as it fends off upstart competitors. Airbus said on Wednesday it would invest just over 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in the "A320neo" project to improve efficiency and cut harmful emissions and noise. Until now, Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing, with its 737, had resisted changing winning designs that are the backbone of the global airline business and helped give birth to the low-cost sector.

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(Reuters) - The euro rose and borrowing costs for crisis-hit euro zone countries fell on Wednesday amid speculation the ECB could take decisive steps to combat turmoil that has stoked contagion worries in the United States and Asia. An 85 billion euro ($110.7 billion) EU/IMF rescue of Ireland last weekend and public assurances from European leaders that the euro will be defended at any cost have failed to impress investors who are targeting Portugal, Spain and Italy in a test of the EU's resolve and crisis-fighting resources.

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